Today's Family & Kids Activities in Long Island-Mar 3

March 3, 2013
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Daily activities for kids and the family are abound in Long Island! Whether you want to spend the day with your children at a zoo, a museum, or just outdoors, we've got it all here. Want to see what's going on next weekend or when you have those few days off? Check out the NY Metro Parents' calendar!

Pinkalicious can't stop eating pink cupcakes despite warnings from her parents. Her pink indulgence lands her at the doctor's office with Pinkititis, an affliction that turns her pink from head to toe - a dream come true for this pink loving enthusiast. But when her hue goes too far, only Pinkalicious can figure out a way to get out of this predicament.

The exhibition includes submissions from public and private schools in the townships of Riverhead, Southampton, East Hampton, and Southold, as well as high schools from the township of Brookhaven. The exhibition will be on view from February 2 through March 3, 2013.

Vincent Smith School, a private day school serving the reluctant learner and students with learning disabilities such as ADD, ADHD, Asperger Syndrome and expressive and receptive language is hosting an Admissions Open House. Students are offered differentiated instruction, hands-on-activities, interdisciplinary instruction, and social emotional learning skills in small supportive classes. The school prides itself academic success on their recognition that all children learn differently.

Fast-paced, funny, and packed with audience participation, Aesop Bops! features David Gonzalez telling a potpourri of Aesop's classic stories including The Lion and the Mouse, The Fisherman and His Wife, and The Turtle's Shell. This feast of funky, physical storytelling leaves young audiences feeling like they had just performed the show too. The Yak-Yak Band rocks, and rolls out the red carpet - inviting kids to join in the fun.

Puppetkabob artist Sarah Frechette has created three stories hidden within the patches of an old quilt. The quilt holds memories of the Underground Railroad, an Irish overseas journey, and an old school house; each journey united by threads of courage, love, and hope. This production blends hand-held lights, illustrated paper puppets, composed music and character storytelling to create a style of cinematic puppetry that flows like film.

Kids will be up to their elbows in goop, guts, shaving cream and play-doh. It's the type of artistic activities that everyone loves, but not one likes to clean-up after. Except the museum staff. The afternoon will offer a variety of sensory activities for children ages 18 months to age 4.

Join in on this grand re-opening celebration of the Theresa Academy of Performing Arts for Children with Special Needs. There will be open classes in Dance, Music, Art, and Yoga for all attendees. Arts and craft activities, face painting, entertainment, and snacks will be also be available.
Faculty will also be available to provide information and registration for summer interim-camps which are held in June and August of 2013. A limited number of camp scholarships and tuition waivers are available for those who qualify.
Studios are air-conditioned and private parking is available. Building is ADA compliant. Faculty is NYS certified and consists of certified educators and performing artists.

Join in on the annual Community Purim Carnival in partnership with the Oceanside Jewish Center and Temple Avodah. Admission is free to the community. There will be rides, food, carnival booths and all attendees are encouraged to come in their most creative and colorful Purim costumes.

The St. James Model Railroad Club will be holding a special Winter Open House Sunday. This 38' X 48' Lionel train layout, the result of 30 years of continuing improvements, represents Railroading from the Age of Steam to present day with many freight and passenger trains running simultaneously in a scenic, imaginative setting. Featured will be many brightly illuminated, scratch-built structures, animated accessories, bustling towns, a colorful circus and amusement park, and much more. The St. James Model Railroad club is not handicap accessible. Parking off Mills Pond Road across from 199 Mills Pond Rd.

Celebrate the arts of the ocean, from scrimshaw to sea shanties. Enjoy live nautical tunes from the local band, Sampawam's Creek, and see a scrimshander at work. Get your face painted and carve your own scrimshaw-style craft to take home. RSVP.

This year's program, Super Seniors, features a real-world
challenge, to be solved by research, critical thinking and imagination. Guided by adult coaches, students work with LEGO elements and moving parts to build ideas and concepts and present them for review.

Fast-paced, funny, and packed with audience participation, Aesop Bops! features a potpourri of Aesop's classic stories including The Lion and the Mouse, The Fisherman and His Wife, and The Turtle's Shell.

Four hundred middle-school children from Long Island will compete in this year’s Championship Tournament. On February 2-3, a qualifying tournament was held at Central Islip High School in which approximately 85 teams competed for an opportunity to advance to the championship tournament.
This year’s Senior Solutions Challenge calls for teams of 9- to 14-year-old children to focus on solving challenges that senior citizens face. Teams will partner with seniors, hold conversations with them about their struggles, and together create solutions as to how these problems can be improved. Upon completion, teams will come together and share the discussed solutions to their senior teammates’ problems. This activity will connect young students and the elderly together to help ensure that a stronger bond within the community is created.
The FLL competition is judged in four areas: project presentation; robot performance; technical design and programming of the robot; and teamwork, with a consideration of the FLL Core Values. The highest honor will go to the team does well in all four areas and best exemplifies the spirit and values of the program.
The Championship Tournament will coincide with the Junior FIRST LEGO League’s (Jr. FLL) Expo, which will take place at the same day and location from 9 a.m. to noon. In the Junior FIRST LEGO League’s SUPER SENIORSSM Challenge, children ages 6 to 9 will learn about the challenges some seniors may have getting around, keeping in touch with friends and family or staying active and fit. They will learn about senior citizens and the changes they have experienced in their lifetime; research one change the senior experienced and find out what experts are doing to make life better or easier for seniors; and learn about simple machines as they build a model made of LEGO elements with a motorized moving part and create a team Show-Me Poster to represent their findings.
Focused on building an interest in science and engineering, Junior FIRST LEGO League is a hands-on program designed to capture young children’s inherent curiosity and direct it toward discovering the possibilities of improving the world around them. Just like FLL, this program features a real-world challenge, to be solved by research, critical thinking and imagination. Guided by adult coaches and the Jr. FLL Core Values, students work with LEGO elements and moving parts to build ideas and concepts and present them for review. Each yearly Challenge has two parts: the LEGO Model and the Show-Me Poster. Working in teams of two to six children and guided by at least one adult coach, teams worked to complete the Challenge.
“The FIRST LEGO League and the Junior FIRST LEGO League give these young children a chance to garner an interest in science and engineering at an early age,” said Janet Anderson, Development Council Member, SBPLI. “Judging by the FLL qualifying tournaments that we had on February 2-3 in which approximately 85 teams participated, the children on Long Island have a genuine interest in science, technology and engineering.”
For a list of the area schools and youth organizations with teams participating in the “Senior Solutions” Challenge, see the attached page. In the event of inclement weather, the event will be rescheduled for Sunday, March 10. For more information, visit www.sbpli.org.

A Charitable Event Benefiting Long Island Families Impacted By Hurricane Sandy. An Eye For Fashion and a Heart of Compassion, The Runway Fashion Show Fall 2013 Collection, showcasing a Long Island emerging designer K. Borgella, For one day at West Islip Atlantic Audi. The runway show will feature ready to wear and couture. An Eye for Fashion and a Heart of Compassion Runway show will be a tribute to the Fashion Industry. This wonderful philanthropic event is designed to give back and empower minds and lives through fashion, art and compassion while showcasing the work of an emerging designer. The events mission, now in its second year is to encourage, give hope and restoration. This star studded event will show support to all impacted by Hurricane Sandy and will remind Sandy survivors that they are not alone, wishing them strength and courage along their journeys.

Over the years Vivian Hershfield, Virginia Edele, Grace Su, Nancy Fabrizio and Suzanne McVetty have journeyed together painting en plein air beautiful sites around Long Island, New York City, and the globe. All are members of the Nassau County Art League and the originators of the League's Plein Air Painters group, they love experiencing the out-of-doors, expressing their individual taste in their choice of views, and enjoying the camaraderie of like minds. The exhibit runs February 8-March 8, 2013.

Once again WMHO will showcase the vocal and instrumental talents of Long Island students 10 to 17 years of age in the first round of competition this March. Scholarships will be awarded from Five Towns College. There is a non-refundable entry fee of $25 and contestants must still be in high school at the time the final awards are given in October 2013. For an official entry form visit stonybrookvillage.com or call 631-751-2244. Deadline March 8, 2013.

Families are invited to explore the gallery with an interactive Scavenger Hunt, where adults and children alike can search for items like mirrors and tic-tac-toe boards within the pieces of artwork in the current gallery show. Currently on display in the East End Arts Gallery is the juried, all media art show, Diversity, which will be up for viewing until Friday, March 8, 2013. This show embraces and explores the way in which we are all personally diverse be it culturally, socially, religiously, even psychologically.

East End Arts presents an exhibit featuring the whimsical artwork of painter Barbara Pascal. In this collection of work, Barbara Pascal seems to be summing up a lifetime of personal impressions, as well as revealing her skills as an expressive painter. Runs through March 10, 2013.

The Smithtown Township Arts Council’s Annual Youth Art Showcase opens February 16 at the Mills Pond House Gallery. Highlighting the creativity of young people in Suffolk County, the exhibit includes artwork created by more than 250 students who have used art to express themselves in a wide variety of creative and exciting ways.
Gallery visitors will be treated to an eclectic glimpse into the lives these young community members who created their work in a wide variety of media including charcoal, mixed media sculpture, acrylic, graphite, watercolor, ink, digital photography, oil, and ceramic and photography.
The exhibit continues through March 15. Public audiences are invited to attend an opening reception Saturday, February 18 from 2-4 pm to view the artwork and meet the exhibiting artists. Admission to the gallery is free. Regular Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 10 am-5 pm, and Saturday-Sunday, 12 pm-4 pm. Closed Feb 18.
The Gallery is located at 660 Route 25A, St. James, NY. Parking off Mills Pond Road (directly across from 199 Mills Pond Road). Call 631-862-6575 or visit www.stacarts.org
This year’s participating school districts include:
Amityville, Bay Shore, Brentwood, Huntington, Kings Park, Lindenhurst, Longwood, Middle Country, Mount Sinai, North Babylon, Northport-East Northport, Patchogue-Medford, Rocky Point, Sachem, Sayville, Smithtown, Three Village, William Floyd

In 1913, the American public was introduced to avant-garde European art styles at the International Exhibition of Modern Art, held at the Lexington Avenue Armory and known as the Armory Show. The Armory Show created a sensation; the controversial and radical art displayed there proved to be a watershed in the development of 20th-century American art. Modernizing America: Artists of the Armory Show focuses on American artists who participated in the Armory Show and explores the impact of European Modernism on American art in the early years of the 20th century. Through March 17, 2013.

Throughout the history of art, artists have turned to the observed world as a source of inspiration. This exhibition, drawn entirely from the Museum's Permanent Collection, explores the various realist movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, beginning with the mid-19th century Barbizon movement in France and the concurrent Hudson River School in America, and progressing through later 19th-century realism and 20th-century movements, such as the Ashcan School, American Scene painting, Magic Realism, Photorealism, and East End (Long Island) realism. December 8, 2012-March 24, 2013.

This anniversary exhibition highlights the breadth and depth of the collection through just 50 of the 605 acquisitions donated since 2006. The featured works include paintings, prints, photographs and drawings by 20th and 21st century American, Latino and European artists such as Luis Cruz Azaceta, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Stanley Brodsky, Lucien Clergue, Yonia Fain, April Gornick, Robert Kipniss, Howardena Pindell, Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Resnick, Alison Saar, W. Eugene Smith and Stanley Twardowicz, among others. Additionally, the exhibition includes Pre-Columbian figures and vessels as well as early to mid 20th-century African masks.

Pick up Great Art Caper materials while in the Emily Lowe Gallery to enjoy self-guided super-sleuthing. Search for hidden clues in the works in the exhibit 50/50:Celebrating Fifty Years of the Hofstra University Museum and use the clues to complete a message. This program runs through March 28.

Sign up for classes to learn how to build a bunny hutch in chocolate or gingerbread. It's a great party for children and adults. Enjoy soda, treats and take home your own creation. See how they make some of Long Island's largest variety of Easter bunnies- up to 3 feet tall. It's a chocoholics dream. Call for exact days. Classes run through March 28.

Find out how the physics of gravity, force, velocity and balance make radical tricks possible in action sports in this program that runs through April 22. Children under age 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

Explore the science of what's eating you in this skin-crawling
exhibition. Examine the what, why, when and how of mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, leeches and other parasites known as sanguinivores (creatures that eat blood). Learn why bloodsuckers are important to the ecosystem and how to keep them out of your system. Attack of the Bloodsuckers! offer visitors the chance to look a real leech in the mouth; pull off your socks and test your bug-appealing foot odor; receive a big hug from a giant, inflating tick; get itchy and knotty with the life-size game of "Twitcher" - a buggy variation on the game Twister. This exhibition runs through May 5, 2013.

This hands-on exhibit allows families to learn about Jewish life, history, values, traditions and heroes, as well as Israel and the Hebrew language. The interactive displays are designed to transform visitors into participants, offering adults and children a unique opportunity to discover the wonders of Jewish heritage. Through August 31, 2013.

Family Center’s Spectrum Support Group offers caregivers mutual support by providing opportunities to meet with others also raising children who are dually diagnosed. To be eligible the child must have a primary Mental Health diagnosis and a secondary Spectrum diagnosis. Groups are facilitated by Parent Advocates, each having their own unique experience raising a child under the Spectrum. While caregivers attend group, respite can be provided to children ages 5-17. To receive respite, an intake is required. This ensures staff is familiar with the child, making caregiver’s participation more relaxing.
Meetings are held the first and third Monday of each month, except holidays. RSVP Miriam at 516-485-5914 xtn 2223
no later than seven days prior to the meeting date.

Looking for a fun after-school or weekend activity? Does your child want to learn how to make friendship and lanyard bracelets? Kids can make as many bracelets as they want. Each child will also receive a special gift. 15% sibling discount. Please call to reserve your space. You can also book a private play-date(10 or more children needed). Call for more information.

Go behind-the-scenes and see firsthand all that's involved in creating a hospitable environment for the aquarium's residents. And you may get a chance to help feed the clownfish. While the Seal Exhibit is under construction, you can visit them up close and personal on the tour.

Uncover clues to help solve a mystery in the outdoor sculpture collection. Pick up your caper kit at Emily Lowe Gallery, have fun while discovering more about these works, and at the end of the caper return to Emily Lowe Gallery for a prize. For everyone ages 4-9 and their grown-up companions all year-round. The program runs through January 1, 2014.

Kids and their grown up companions can stop in at the Hofstra University Museum's Emily Lowe Gallery, and pick up a backpack. At the end of your tour, return the backpack and each child will receive a small gift from the Museum. The program runs through January 1, 2014.

See the work of 10 skilled sculptors located throughout the scenic 75-acre arboretum on the Garden City campus.
This outdoor installation showcases the talents of Miggy Buck (NY), John Clement (NY), Maria Hall (NY), Ed Haugevik (NY), William King (NY), Anti Liu (NY), Johnny Poux (NY), Kim Radochia (MA), Christopher Saucedo (NY), and Hans Van de Bovenkamp (NY). Works of art encompass use of various materials-steel, bronze, aluminum, concrete and reflective mirrors. These man-made creations are transposed into poetic visual narrations.
The exhibition runs through May 31, 2014.

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Share your story in the Caring Kids Awards program and be recognized for the giving back that you do. This program celebrates the many good deeds that families do together to teach their children the importance of helping others. 8 families will be recognized win given $500 as a special thank you. Caring Kids Awards.